RE:volt! Chapter 40: Bottled Up

  Ark blinked, his vision returning after he'd been KO’d by Irelix showing off.

  “Seriously? That was uncalled for.” Ark said, sitting up with a scowl on his face.

  “What? You had it coming.” Irelix responded, the dragon sitting on her golden throne as usual, her expression indifferent as she filed away at her talons. “Be lucky I went easy on you.”

  “Easy? You obliterated me with a hundred different spells just because you could.” Ark spat.

  “Yes I did.” Irelix stated matter-of-factly. “Thank you for the entertainment.”

  “Fuck you.” Ark muttered.

  “You're the one who keeps asking for it.”

  “Yeah because it keeps me sharp, on my toes for future threats.” Ark replied.

  “And how is that doing for you?”

  “Great when you're being helpful.” Ark said as Irelix gasped.

  “You wound me.” Irelix said, adopting a pained expression. “Do you mean to say that I am not always helpful?”

  “You're mostly a lazy fat as-”

  Before Ark could finish his sentence he was vaporized, a bolt of lightning striking him and disintegrating his body down to the molecular atom.

  “-ass lizard who mostly sits around watching me like some perverted stalker.” Ark said, continuing where he left off as he reformed and finishing his sentence despite being atomized.

  Irelix raised her hand, a cornucopia of boulders responding to her will to form a large boulder above her head.

  “Crushing me won't make me less right lizard.” Ark said.

  “It amuses me though Monkey.” Irelix said before depositing twenty tons of rock on Ark's head.

  *****

  Waking up the next day, Ark went through the motions of his routine training, following his mundane tasks until he and dozens of other slaves were suddenly pulled from out of the line by Ninety-Nine who now sported many more gray hairs, wrinkles on his battered face, and bum leg that resulted in him limping about.

  “What's the occasion old man?” Ark asked, the aging house-slave scowling at Ark.

  “Call me old again and I’ll slap you boy.” Ninety-Nine replied, walking in lockstep with Ark as he guided the group out of the barracks area. “Need to get yer re-collared.”

  “Ah, I suppose it’s been awhile since then hasn’t it?” Ark said, tugging at the tight collar and recounting the years that had gone by since last he had visited the smith.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  “Yeah it has, and here we are. Years later and still locked up and you're around.” Ninety-Nine muttered.

  “You seem cheery today.”

  “I'm always cheery. I'm the epitome of cheery. Not my fault your all fucked in the head Six Two Six and can't see I'm ecstatic. Truthfully, I worry you'll survive through the winter.”

  “Aw. I always knew you cared.”

  “Fuck off brat.” Ninety-Nine said before secretly ruffling the hair of the boy who now towered over him as they approached the smithing house.

  For security purposes and lack of containment cells, Ark and the other slaves who were being moved to be re-collared were brought in groups of three. With each slave being escorted by at least two helpers into the holding cells where their collars were removed as they were chained up in the dank room and made to wait until new collars were ready to be affixed around their necks.

  “Seems like only yesterday I was being collared.” Ark said as Ninety-Nine adjusted Ark’s shackles and the familiar blacksmith walked in, the man holding a blank expression as he entered only to freeze upon spying Ark.

  “What the fuck?” Cid said, his face bewildered and catching the attention of the two helpers flanking the door outside of the cell with Ninety-Nine raising a brow.

  “What? What’s wrong?” A helper asked, jolting Cid from his stupor.

  “N-n-nothing. Just a memory lapse.” Cid replied quickly, drawing an odd look from Ark as the man leaned in and began undoing the tight collar around his neck.

  “You need to dissipate and use your mana boy.” Cid whispered, his eyes focused on Ark’s collar.

  “What?” Ark’s eyes went round, the man’s words indicating that he knew Ark was a mana user!

  “You heard me. Use not suppress. Suppress only bottles it up.” Cid whispered angrily and quickly.

  “What’s going on in there?” A helper asked, causing Cid to flash a glare at Ark as the collar unclamped from around his neck, easing the tension that had been wrapped there for years.

  “Use not bottle.” The man hissed before walking out, leaving Ark in a state of shock and worry.

  The blacksmith is a mage?! Ark hadn’t accounted for that, no, it was impossible. Why would a mage be working as a blacksmith? It didn’t make sense unless he had some profession that taught him. Ark’s mind began to race, his thoughts jumping from one conclusion to the next. However, considering the man didn’t immediately rat him out, there was hope that the smith was on his side.

  Hope, because Ark wasn’t sure what to do if the man ratted him out.

  He is right though. Irelix commented, the dragon materializing in the dank cell. Suppression is just bottling the energy up. You’ve been suppressing for so long your core is actually upgradable. An impressive feat, but one that can have unintended side effects.

  See, this is what I mean about you not being helpful. Ark hissed. You pick and choose when to play a part instead of just outright telling me something is amiss or can be detrimental.

  If I did that, then I’d be interfering in the story more than I want to. Irelix said, the progenitor of dragons yawning.

  Great. You know you suck right?

  Relax, think about it as edging.

  Edging?

  Masturbating until you’re at the edge of climaxing. All the scalings do it as part of some new fad, personally I-

  Irelix was talking but Ark wasn’t listening. Instead, his face scrunched, his jaw going slack as his mind temporarily short-circuited at the newfound knowledge he never wanted to know.

  So basically, if you’re all bottled up, a prick or a trigger can cause you to erupt and-

  “I… I get it.” Ark muttered aloud. “Thank you for that information…”

  Irelix shifted her stance, her face taking on a bit of a prideful look as she glared down at Ark with her golden eyes.

  Now now, no need to thank me. I have often been credited as being a wise, and benevolent being. Occasionally I try to live up the expectations of by subjects. Irelix said smugly, completely ignoring the look of disgust on Ark’s face as the door to the cell opened up and Cid walked through her with a fresh collar in hand.